Bethan Davies

I have kindly been invited to talk about gardening and reading at the Gibson Library in Saffron Walden! Come along (for free!) at 19.30 on 10 Dec to hear about #earlymodern plants, print & marginalia (+ Gabriel Harvey’s compulsive underlining of mentions of saffron). gibsonlibrary.org.uk/news.html

Autumn 2025 GLOBALIZING EARLY MODERN RECIPES INTRODUCTION By Lavinia Gambini, Lucy Havard, and Amanda E. Herbert, Editors The early modern globalization of food and medicine was also a globalization of recipes. A...

A global issue of the recipe project! recipes.hypotheses.org

This ⬇️⬇️

Kim F. Hall: The Sweet Taste of Empire YouTube video by Barnard Center for Research on Women

Friends, if you want to learn a bit more abt The Sweet Taste of Empire, watch this INCREDIBLE conversation with @triciamatthew.bsky.social w.bsky.social, Debapriya Sarkar, Jennifer Morgan, @kwazana.bsky.social & Tapiwa Gambura!
www.youtube.com/live/a-Npxq-...

Then you can buy it at 40% discount.

🔥

Congratulations Hester! ✨It looks beautiful. Can’t wait to read!

“Brown Sugar Makes the World Go ‘Round”: A Conversation with Kim F. Hall on The Sweet Taste of Empire | Barnard Center for Research on Women Tomisin Fasosi interviews Kim F. Hall on her new book, The Sweet Taste of Empire

Want a taste of *Sweet Taste of Empire*? See this pre-launch discussion w/ a former student about the book, my relationship to writing and to food -- and why it's not just about the early modern. #booksky #RaceB4Race #ShakeRace #writing #foodhistory #history
bcrw.barnard.edu/brown-sugar-...

Indigenous Plant Stories in an English Treasure House Delve into the links between Knole and Indigenous American histories as we investigate its colonial connections.

'The transience of a flicker of fire [...] compels us to grapple with histories of the ephemeral and the impermanent, even within those places that seem built to last.'

Lauren Working and Stephanie Pratt on Knole's connections to colonial history:

Revels Office ⋅ a virtual network for early modern PhD students and ECRs ⋅

Hey Bluesky!👋 We're the Revels Office, an academic network for PGRs and ECRS researching all things early modern📚

Our community is a friendly space to share ideas and resources, ask questions, support each other, and meet fellow early modernists.

Check out our website for more! revelsoffice.com

First autumn SCS seminar. A panel discussion on "New Directions in Royal Histories" with Misha Ewen (University of Sussex), Holly Marsden (Historic Royal Palaces), and Lauren Shaw (Celtic Harmony / University of Roehampton).

English Faculty/OWC Shakespeare Webinar: The Merry Wives of Windsor In this free webinar, Professor Emma Smith will be discussing the new edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor from Oxford World's Classics.

Our #Shakespeare webinar series continues! Join us on 6 Oct at 6pm to delve into the new OWC edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor with @oldfortunatus.bsky.social &
@callanjd.bsky.social

All welcome! Register now via Eventbrite & you will be sent a Zoom link before the event. #teamenglish

Archival Research in the Environmental Humanities Workshop Learn about archival research in the Environmental Humanities in a workshop at The National Archives.

Join me for a workshop on archival research in the Environmental Humanities at The National Archives!

We're seeking early career participants - apply to attend to hear from speakers, view original documents, and help test our research guidance. #envhum #envhist

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/archival-r...

YouTube video by Passamezzo In Praise of Chocolate

Today is #WorldChocolateDay!
Here is a #17thcentury #ballad extolling the virtues of #chocolate, printed in the year that the first chocolate (and coffee) house was opened in London....
From Chocolate, or an Indian Drinke, 1652.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5KJ...

#earlymusic #earlymodern #otd

Looks beautiful, Hester! Can’t wait to see what’s inside 🥰

Congratulations Patrick!! 🎉 lovely news

Congratulations Greg!!

So much fun working with the @kingsartshums.bsky.social marketing team and the Globe on this ‘Top 5 Shakespearean Film Adaptations’ (and got to live out my inner TikTok star!)

If you’re on Instagram - give the original a like too! — www.instagram.com/reel/DL4nTOC...
#Shakespeare #skystorians

How I Read I love reading and I love advice about how to read.

I wrote this guide to being a better reader: how to read, what to read and why
jmarriott.substack.com/p/how-i-read

What questions should writers ask? Katherine Rundell nails it in ‪@thetls.bsky.social‬

A set of eight rectangular cookies arranged on a square white plate against a dark wooden background. Each cookie is inspired by a wallpaper design by Morris & Co. The patterns represented feature different floral and leaf shapes in shades of baby blue, soft pink, leafy green, mustard yellow, cream, and dark grey.

Today is National Biscuit Day, and it’s about time that I populated this account with biscuit (cookie) sets from the past few years. Here are some of my favourites. 🧵

First up, a set inspired by the delicious designs of William Morris and John Henry Dearle.

Book cover: “Sweet Taste of Empire: Sugar, Mastery, and Pleasure in the Anglo Caribbean” Kim F. Hall

The seeds of plantations’ easy transition from “house of horrors” to luxury spas & sites for celebration of white reproduction were planted from the beginning through a phenomenon I call “plantation aesthetics”

boingboing.net/2025/05/21/a...

Do come along on May 28th to hear all about Francis Fry, his bibles, and a little bit about his chocolate...which you might even get to try🍫

The fruits of my Munby Fellowship research @theul.bsky.social @theulspeccoll.bsky.social @darwincollegecam.bsky.social

Book cover: The Sweet Taste of Empire: Sugar, Mastery and Pleasure in the Anglo Caribbean - Kim F. Hall

In *Sweet Taste of Empire,* (forthcoming August 2025), you can read my re-visiting of the Black boy mentioned by Pepys who was “dried in an oven, and lies there
entire in a box” who has been troubling me since graduate school. Another colonial “souvenir” 😢

www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

We’ve extended the deadline to submit an abstract for our colloquium on early modern war narratives! Please share widely and send us your abstracts!

#earlymodern #history

English: how the subject lost its spark Students are falling out of love with English, and can we really blame them, asks subject specialist Barbara Bleiman

An excellent post from @barbarableiman.bsky.social of @engmediacentre.bsky.social on how English teaching has lost its spark. It echoes similar issues I see in history classrooms where genuine engagement with historical debate and process is being lost #historyteacher

www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

I continue to be amazed by what the arts & humanities contribute with so little, and disappointed by the ongoing under investment in knowledge of human societies and cultures at a time of such fragmentation.

Coming up this Monday (7 April), do come along to this webinar on the #Tempest. This new intro came out about a year ago this month, and I still love coming back to it 🐚

Congratulations Evey!!! 🥳

Wonderful news!!